VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 35: Hunger of Shadows

There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered beast. When pushed to their limit, and death was a forgone conclusion, that was the moment when many would lash out at their most deadly, hoping to escape at best or at worst, take their killer down with them.

Belladonna was very aware of this, so when the Barghest’s whimpers turned to foaming growls and barks as it whipped the chain towards her, she was ready for it. The glow retreated from her skin only to be replaced a second later by slight crackles of electricity that danced along her arms and legs.

Her eyes gained a soft blue glow as the chain that was whipping towards her like a blur suddenly slowed down enough to become easily visible.

She leaned back, letting the first swing brush past her face harmlessly, and lifted her leg to avoid the attempt to trip her. Her foot came down, pinning the chain to the ground, before she pivoted on that same foot and lashed out a lightning fast kick towards its head.

The Barghest flew backwards, only to jerk to a stop mid flight from the chain attached to its flesh like a leash.

When it landed, Belladonna lifted her foot and snatched the chain up before sprinting over to the recovering beast. She could feel the chain wriggling slightly in her grasp, as if it was groggy and slowly waking up from a drunken stupor, but even if it recovered soon it wouldn’t be fast enough.

She leapt onto the Barghest’s back, wrapped its own chain around its oversized jaw and pulled it tight. The groggy beast tried to fight against it, but the muscles in her arms swelled as she put all over her strength into keeping it locked in place.

Alligators had powerful jaws, made for crushing. But in exchange for their bite strength, they had a pathetic opening power, and just like she expected the crushing jaws of this creature operated the same way.

The fight didn’t come from its mouth, which had no chance of opening like this, but from its control of the chain.

Belladonna looped the chain around one arm, to free the other, and immediately drove her knife into the wolves throat. Once, twice, three times, and then a few more for good measure. Blood sprayed from the wound, splattering across her hand and staining the grass.

But Belladonna focused on the task at hand instead of the sweat nectar painting her hand, as well as ignoring the strange thoughts that made her refer to blood in such an odd way.

Life force rushed through her body, confirming the death of the Barghest, and a notification rang in her mind of her level up before the body had even hit the ground.

After a quick look around, to make sure nothing else was around to steal her kills or had been attracted by the noise, Belladonna let out a sigh of relief. She immediately set to work, skinning and butchering the wolf pack, starting with the Barghest. That was the most valuable of the lot, after all.

Once the skin was off and placed to the side so it wouldn’t be ruined by more blood, Belladonna immediately dug into the corpse looking for one very specific thing. Within a minute, a pure black crystal rested within her hand. The colour inside shifted, mixing with streaks of grey, as she rolled it within her hand as if it was hollow and full of oil.

Without hesitation, Belladonna tossed the Source Crystal into her mouth, which instantly melted upon contact with her tongue. The sweet taste exploded across her taste buds and the liquidified crystal eagerly slid down her throat.

The power contained within coursed through her body, sending a shiver down her spine. But this time her system didn’t stay silent. Instead it pinged multiple times with a slew of messages.

[Source Devouring Constitution activated!

Purifying Source.... Purification complete!]

You have gained the following benefits from the purified source;

Vitality + 6

Agility + 10

Esoterica + 10 ]

[You have gained the following skill from the purified source;

Skill: Shadow Veil]

Belladonna clenched her fists, tensing her muscles as the power flowed through her. As it increased the power of her own source, giving her more mana to work with, it also increased the strength of her body.

That was the main benefit of how she had melded it with her flesh instead of containing it in a pool within her. Her mana saturated her muscles, fuelling them passively. That was were the new Esoterica stat came into play. An extra bonus to her overall stats on top of her existing stat increases.

Combined with the fact that she could increase it by not just cultivating like normal, but by consuming the source of her kills... She really was already treading into the path of a broken build, and that wasn’t to mention her regenerating blood drinking loop she had planned for later in her life.

But gaining skills too? That had come as a lovely surprise. Even better, she didn’t need to struggle with it as much as she did with learning Infusion. Instead it was more intuitive. It would still take time to fully master, but with just a little concentration...

Belladonna’s body dissolved into black smoke, which rapidly dispersed and fell into the shadows at her feet. A moment later, the wisps of smoke emerged from the shadows of the tree branch she had snipped the wolves from as they coalesced into her physical form once again.

She quickly crouched down, panting heavily as she leaned against the tree trunk, yet even with the sudden wave of exhaustion couldn’t erase the manic, wide smile from her face as she laughed to herself.

’So that’s what teleportation feels like... I can’t believe I can really teleport! Well... In a game. But still, this is so fucking cool!’

She laughed again, dropping from the branch the normal way and striding back over to her kills to resume her butchering. Judging from how her mana levels felt, at the current time she probably had two of those in her when she was at full strength.